Soap-cake and handle therewith



Nov. 22, 1966 R. B. STAVER 3,285,685

SQAP-CAKE AND HANDLE THEREWITH Filed Aug. 12, 1963 RoeERT B. STA E INVENTOR United States Patent 3,286,686 SOAP-CAKE AND HANDLE THEREWITH Robert B. Staver, 191 Hillview Ave., 'Los Altos, Calif. Filed Aug. 12, 1963, Ser. No. 301,536 1 Claim. (Cl. 11876) This invention relates generally to a member attached to a body of material of the type which is eroded in use, and more particularly to a member attached-to a body of soap.

In my copending application, Serial No. 804,283, filed April 6, 1959, now Patent No. 3,100,366, entitled, Cake of Material and Handle, there is described a body of material, for example a cake of soap, which is adapted to operate on an object to be treated. The body of material is attached to a member which may be adapted to be held by the hand, said member being attachedto the upper surface of said body, the opposed lower surface of the body being adapted for use in cooperation with an object to be treated. The member includes a holding means portion which extends generally upwardly in a direction away from the body of material. Said holding means includes a slender stern portion which is made so that it can be held comfortably in the crotch between two adjacent fingers. Usually the upper end of the holding means includes a head portion which facilitates holding by the hand and supporting of the article. In use, the body of material is generally held with the stem comfortably nested in the crotch between two adjacent fingers. The surface of the body of material adjacent to said member may rest against the under surface of the fingers and the palm of the hand. The ends of the fingers may curve over the outer edge of the article in a comfortable manner.

Said c-opending application includes a claim for an article as described wherein said holding means is at least partially hollow whereby to define, in said combination, an internal cavity to increase the buoyance of said combination.

It is an object of the present invention to increase the size of the internal cavity defined in part by the inner configuration of the member and an adjacent surface of the body of material by indenting the wall of the cavity into the material, thus increasing the buoyance of the combination over what it would be without said indentation.

It is a further object of this invention to provide increased structural support for that portion of the body of material not yet eroded away or otherwise consumed that lies generally in opposition to and below said buoyancy cavity contained within said member when the lower wall of said cavity is formed by the body of material.

Referring to the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation view in cross-section of a body of erodable material with a member attached to one side (upper) and the opposite side adapted for cooperation with an object to be treated, which view shows an internal cavity located partially within said member, the lower wall of said cavity being formed by the body of material, said wall being indented into said material.

FIGURE 2 is a partial front elevation view in crosssection of such a combination as described, wherein the body of material is largely worn away and in which a hole in the material has thus been formed by wearing some of the material through to said indentation.

Referring to FIGURE 1, the body of erodable material 1, which may be soap, has a member attached to its upper surface portion 3, which member is generally designated by the number 2, said member having a holding means portion 5 with an upwardly extending stem portion 6, said stern being sutficiently slender to be positioned in the 3,286,686 Patented Nov. 22 1966 "ice crotch of two adjacent squeezing fingers of a hand without spreading said fingers to an uncomfortable degree, a head portion 15 provided at the upper end of said stem, said head extending laterally therefrom, said body of material having an opposed (lower) surface 4 adapted for cooperation with an object to be treated. This describes the preferred embodiment of the member, in its relationship to the body of material. The lower portion of the member 2 together with the upper surface 9 of the body of material form an internal cavity denoted generally by the number 7 to increase the buoyancy of the article. The surface 9 of the body of material, that contributes to the formation of said cavity, is indented into this body of ma terial, said indentation (hollow) representing a portion 8 of the overall cavity 7. The indentation surface 9 of the cavity portion 8 is here shown as conicle in cross-section. Actually, this indentation surface may be of other configuration in cross-section such as a segment of a circle, parabola, the cusp formed by two adjacent halves of two equal cycloids, etc.

Referring to FIGURE 2, the body of erodable material 1 is shown as being largely worn away so as to create a hole, indicated by the number 12, in the bottom surface 11 of the body of material. The dashed line 10 shows the approximate lower surface of the body of material when worn to that extent through use. At that time, the surface 10 extends unbrokenly across the bottom. But when this surface is Worn beyond the depth of greatest penetration of the cavity portion 8 into the body of material, such as shown by the lower surface 11 and the hole 12 in said surface, the cavity 7 is no longer completely enclosed.

If there were no indentation 8 into the body of material and instead this wall of the cavity formed by the body of material were flat and coincided with the lowermost portion 13 of the member 2, the lower surface of the body would tend to wear upwards presenting an unbroken surface downwardly until such time as the lowest portion 13 of the member 2 became exposed, at which time all of the material beneath the cavity would presumably be eroded away. However, in actual practice, if the erodable material is of soap or wax, or other erodable substance of relatively little strength in shear and tension, in the case where the bottom surface of the internal cavity is flat, before all the material could wear away a thin layer of the remaining body of material would bend or push up into the cavity, sometimes breaking, which would appear wasteful to the user who may not know how much material is left unused.

With the indentation previously described of the surface 9 into the body of material, when the bottom surface is Worn as shown at 11, the material remaining outside the hole 12 and lying beneath the cavity 7 (which is no longer completely enclosed) is designated by the number 14. This material is cantilevered inwardly with greater vertical shearing cross-sections located outwardly, this reducing the tendency of the material located in this region below the cavity to collapse into the cavity. Instead, as the material wears down, the central hole tends to grow progressively larger until the material is worn down to the level of the lowest portion 13 of the member '2. The result is that more of the body of material may be efficiently utilized. Further, the user can readily see that the material remaining after the member is exposed from below is less than otherwise, with little or no portion of material being wasted within the central cavity region. For a cake of material such as soap which deteriorates on continued contact with water, it is. desirable that the downward slope of the surface 9 be sufficiently great so as to prevent water collecting thereon after formation of the hole 12.

The body of erodable material is here explicitly defined to include wax, solid body cream, soap, or any other similarly plastic m'oldable erodable material which is generally soft or may soften in use, to which said member may be attached or any combination of same. Soap is defined broadly to include any erodable soap-like cleansing material regardless of other constituents it may contain such as skin creams, skin moisturizers, medication, etc.

I claim:

In combination, a body of soap of a size to be grasped in the hand and manipulated thereby, said body having an upper surface portion, a member extending upwardly from and attached to at least part of said upper surface portion of said body, said body having an opposite surface for application to an object to be treated, said member including means for being held by the hand; wherein said member is at least partially hollow whereby to define, in said combination, a closed internal cavity the lower face of which is formed at least in part by said body of soap, the portion of the body of soap whose face forms at least part of said cavity, being hollowed out below the lowest level of the face of said cavity formed by said References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 702,5 31 6/ 1902 Bowen 292 1,982,654 12/1934 Friedman 15209.51 2,717,472 9/ 1955 Wilmington 28 3,100,363 8 1963 Staver 45-28 3,125,824- 3/1964 Stavez'r 45-28 FOREIGN PATENTS 567,780 I 3/1924 France.

MORRIS KAPLAN, Primary Examiner. F. B. SHERRY, C. A. NU-NBERG, Assistant Examiners. 

